My resignation letter to Zee News (Vishwa Deepak)

Dear Zee News,

After a year, four months and four days, the time has come for me to
leave you. Although I should have done this earlier, if I don’t do
this now, I’ll never be able to forgive myself.

What I am about to say is not a result of anger, irritation or emotion
but is a well thought-out account. Along with being a journalist, I am
also a citizen of the country in whose name the poison of blind
“nationalism” is being spread and the country being pushed towards a
state of civil war. My responsibilities as an Indian citizen as well
as my professional duties is to stop this poison from spreading. I
know this is liking trying to cross the ocean in a boat but I still
want to make a start. I am therefore resigning from my post as a
protest against the role we played in kindling and then promoting a
campaign of blind nationalism which used the JNUSU President Kanhaiya
Kumar as an excuse. I request that this letter be accepted without
making the issue one of personal enmity.

In any case, the matter isn’t personal at all. It is one of
professional duty, social consciousness and, finally, one of
patriotism. I regret to inform you that that as a result of being a
part of your organisation, I have failed many times as a journalist on
all three counts in the last one year.

Post May 2014, ever since Shri Narendra Modi has become the Prime
Minister, more or less every newsroom has been communalised – but the
situation at our organisation is even more appalling. I apologise for
using such grandoise vocabulary however there really is no other word
for it. Why is it so that the news is written by giving it a Modi
angle? The aim in writing the news is to push the Modi government’s
agenda.

I have started to seriously doubt whether we are journalists at all.
It seems like we are nothing more than the government’s mouthpiece or
contract killer. Modi is the country’s prime minister, he is my prime
minister but as a journalist I am unable to swallow any more Modi
worship. My conscience has started to revolt against me. It’s like I
am ill.

Behind each news story is an agenda, behind every news show is an
effort to show how great the Modi government is and behind every
debate is the attempt to shoot down Modi’s opponents? Nothing less
than words like “attack” or “war” is acceptable to us. What is all
this? When I stop and think about it, I feel like I have gone mad.

Why were we made to be so immoral, unethical, and despicable? After
having studied from the country’s top most media institute and having
worked in esteemed institutions such as BBC, Aaj Tak and Deutsche
Welle, Germany, my journalistic capital has now been reduced to people
calling me a “Chhee (yuck) news journalist”. Our integrity has been
blown to bits. Who will take the responsibility for this?

How much should I say? A continuous campaign was run against Delhi’s
Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, and is still being run. But why?
Basic policies which helped the people, like those of
water-electricity and odd even scheme, were also questioned. It is
fully within one’s rights to disagree with Kejriwal and to criticise
him, but Kejriwal’s assassination is not a journalist’s right. If I
start compiling a list of negative stories run against Kejriwal, then
it will fill several pages. I want to know whether journalism’s core
values of “neutralism” and honesty towards the viewers have any value
or not?

This is what happened on the issue of Dalit scholar, Rohith Vemula’s
suicide. First we addressed him as a “Dalit scholar”; then as a “Dalit
student”. That’s still fine. But at least they should have written the
news properly. The role of ABVP leader and BJP’s Bandaru Dattatreya in
driving Rohith Vemula to commit suicide is still surrounded by dubious
questions (everything is clear). But as a media house our work was to
dilute the issue and to be their saviour.

I remember when Uday Prakash and other eminent writers started
returning their awards on the question of intolerance, we started
raising questions about them instead. Let’s just talk about Uday
Prakash who is read by millions. He is the pride of the language we
speak, the one we use for our livelihood. His work reflects our lives,
our dreams, our struggles, but we are trying to prove that this was
all a conspiracy. I was hurt even then, but tolerated it.

But now how long should I do it – and why?

I am not able to sleep well. I am restless. Maybe it is the result of
a guilty conscience. It is the biggest taint any individual can be
marked by: treason, of being a traitor. But the question is, as
journalists, what right do we have to give certificates and degrees on
being a traitor? Isn’t this the domain of the courts?

Along with Kanhaiya, we made many students appear to be traitors and
anti-nationals in the eyes of the people. If anyone is murdered
tomorrow, who will take its responsibility? We have not merely created
a situation for someone’s murder or to destroy some families but we
have created the conditions ripe for spreading riots and brought the
country to the brink of a civil-war. What sort of patriotism is this?
After all, what sort of journalism is this?

Are we the mouthpieces of the BJP or the RSS that we will do whatever
they say? The video didn't have any "Pakistan Zindabad" slogans at all
– yet we played it repeatedly to spread madness and mayhem. How did we
believe that some voices coming out of the dark belonged to Kanhaiya
and his companions? Due to our biases, we heard “long live Indian
courts” as “long live Pakistan” and working on the government line,
brought the careers, their hopes and aspirations and families of some
people to the brink of destruction. It would have been better if we
had let the agencies do their jobs and waited for their conclusions.

People are threatening to rape Umar Khalid’s sister and attack her
with acid, they are calling her the sister of a traitor. Think, if
something like this happens, would we not be responsible for it?
Kanhaiya said it not once but thousands of times that he does not
endorse anti-national slogans but he was not even heard once because
the mayhem we created was on the government line. Have we taken a
serious look at Kanhaiya’s home? Kanhaiya’s home is not a “home” but a
painful symbol of the helplessness of this country’s farmers and
common people, it is a graveyard of those hopes that are being buried
every second in this country. But we have become blind.

It hurts me to say this but I want to say that there are many houses
like this where I come from. Indian rural life is equally colourless.
Those broken-down walls and already-weakened lives have been injected
with the poison of nationalism without thinking about its
consequences. If Kanhaiya’s paralysed father dies out of shock, would
we not be responsible? If the Indian Express had not done the story
[on Kanhaiya’s family], this country would not have come to know where
Kanhaiya gets the inspiration to speak for the rights of the deprived.

Rama Naga and others are also in the same state. From modest
backgrounds, having struggled against poverty, these boys managed to
get a subsidised education at JNU. You can see the confidence in
progressing. But those willing to sell out for TRPs have almost ruined
their careers.

It’s possible that we don’t agree with their politics or that their
ideas are radical, but how did they become traitors? How can we
appropriate the work of the courts in judging? Is it just a
coincidence that Delhi Police’s FIR has Zee News’ name in it? Is it
that we are in nexus with the Delhi Police? What answer can we give
the people.

After all, what do we have against JNU or JNU’s students? I believe
the modern values, democracy, diversity and co-existence of opposing
views has made JNU an eden in India, but now we have begun calling it
a den of treason and outlaws.

I’d like to know if it is JNU that is beyond the law or the BJP
leaders who stormed into court to beat up a leader of the Left? The
BJP MLA and his supporters were beating up a CPI leader on the
streets, with the police simply standing by and watching the
spectacle. On screen we could see the assault and we wrote
‘Allegations of violence against OP Sharma’. I asked why did we have
to say ‘allegations’? I was told this was because it came from ‘upar’
(above). How has our ‘upar’ gotten so low? You can understand if it
goes p to Modi, but things have gotten to such a state that we are now
saving BJP leaders like OP Sharma and ABVP workers?

I have started to loathe my existence, my journalism and my
helplessness. Is this why I left a number of careers to become a
journalist? Maybe not.

Now there are only two options before me. Either I leave journalism,
or I separate myself from these conditions. I am taking the second
route. I have not made any decisions, I am just asking some questions
about my profession and my identity. It is a small matter, but this
accountability is important. It’s less for others and more for me. I’m
quite certain I won’t be able to get a job anywhere else. I also
understand that if I had kept at it, I would have gotten close to a
lakh. My salary is good but it comes with too many sacrifices, which
I’m unwilling to give. I come from an ordinary middle class family, so
I know how difficult it is to be without a salary, but still my
consciousness will not be stifled.

I am saying again that I don’t have any personal complaints. These are
issues of institutional and editorial policy. I trust that it will be
understood also in this way.

It is also important to say that if a media house wants to impose its
right-wing preferences, individuals should also be free to talk about
their own political lines. It is my job as a journalist to remain
neutral, but as a person and an enlightened citizen, my path is of the
Left which is found not in party offices but in our everyday lives.
This is my identity.

And finally, I am thankful for the year in which I struggled within
Zee News. It is because of that struggle I managed to make some good
friends.

Respectfully yours,

Vishwa Deepak